Will Technology Kill the Call Center?

We recently posted a blog on how smart phones could be used to bypass automated attendants and deep dial into a call center with a Smartphone visual menu. This blog received a lot of interest and the follow on questions clearly indicated a level of interest in just how technology impacts the traditional call center. The “call center” is now the “contact center”! Customers are calling more frequently from mobile devices and less frequently from land lines. What does that mean to your contact center? Have you integrated your website with your Contact Center? Can clients who visit your “online store”, hit a chat link and interact with the next available customer service representative? Are you formatting webpages for both the full size computer screen as well as the Smartphone screen? Technology is shaping the channels or touch points that your customers use to interact with your company and your call center will most undoubtedly go through a significant change in the very near future.

Will Technology kill the call center? Ashley Furness CRM Analyst for Software Advice, Austin Texas, hosted an online panel discussion to seek answers to the questions impacting the current transition of forward thinking contact centers. She asked industry experts: How have you seen consumer contact channel utilization change in the last decade? What role has technology played in this change? How do you see technology impacting the way customers contact a company in the future, and the kind of service they receive? Finally, Will technology eventually render call centers irrelevant?

These are very interesting subjects for those who have responsibility for managing customer experience, satisfaction and fulfillment. Industry participants from Avaya (Customer Experience), Drumbi (mobile), IntelliResponse (Virtual Agents), and Etech Global (Chat Services)discuss these questions and provide expert insight. These experts do in fact answer the question “Will technology Kill the Call Center” and the panel discussion is well worth viewing!

I agree with Edwin, don’t think technology will replace the call centre. One of the major reasons is that customers hate automated calls and much prefer to talk to a real person. As a result, businesses are actually investing in customer service and call centre staff as a way to differentiate themselves from the competition.

I don’t think that technology will kill call centers. In-fact i believe that the enhancements in technology will further improve the performance of cal centers and make them more beneficial for organizations. I think it will actually help them in growing.